meshcheriakov_istoriia_i_kultura_iaponii_14

from licensed quarters and virtuous wives and daughters. There is also an intermediate group of girls from the post stations and maiden in teahouses and inns, who carry out a primary function of the narration’s development. Women from the licensed quarters seem to be the most interesting in terms of depiction and self-identification. Such characters have personal names, detailed depiction of their appearance; they are in some sense nasty and often cause the humorous situation to develop. The virtuous women are also self-sufficient, sometimes frivolous and initiating the progress of the plot as well. Thus, the literary work represents an image of a woman, both typical for its epoch as well as innovative in some way, while Ikku shows no disapproval upon his female characters, despite all their sins and misbehavior.

KEY WORDS: Tokugawa period, gesaku, humorous fiction, kokkeibon, Jippensha Ikku, Tōkaidōchū hizakurige, women’s position, licensed quarters.

Books of Ihara Saikaku and the Idea of National Literature in the Meiji period

Irina V. Melnikova

Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan. Е-mail: mirina@mail.doshisha.ac.jp

In the late 1880s, the Japanese literary canon formed by the Edo era philologists of the “Chinese” (kangaku) school and the “National” (kokugaku) school was revised. The idea of Japanese national literature was formulated in the context of “world literature” that came to Japan in the form of translations and Western theoretical works. The early academic histories of Japanese literature and multivolume series, presenting main texts republished in typeset, sometimes with prefaces and commentaries, reflected the ideas about Japanese national literature elaborated by university professors, but not only them. The article considers the “new discovery of Saikaku” — the publication and popularization of the 17th century Japanese writer Ihara Saikaku by young writers from the Kenyūsha group, who took Saikaku as their predecessor and imitated his style. They stressed Saikaku's “realism” and his interest in “human feelings” (love themes) in contrast with the didacticism of novels produced in the first half of the 19th century. The article discusses the Complete Works of Saikaku (Teikō Saikaku Zenshū) published in the Imperial Library Series (Teikoku bunko, 1893–1897) by Kenyūsha group members Ozaki Kōyō and Watanabe Otowa. The desire of young writers to present Saikaku as a classic of Japanese literature and their understanding of the essence and role of fiction did not match with the vision of literary scholars, the authors of comprehensive History of Japanese Literature, 1890. They included popular fiction of the 17th — 19th centuries into the corpus of Japanese literature along with the texts of the Heian and Kamakura-Muromachi periods, but they did not abandon the priority of educational and ethical functions of literature over the aesthetic ones. For them and for the majority of readers, up to the end of the Meiji era, Kyokutei Bakin (1767–1848) remained the classic of Edo literature, and Ihara Saikaku entered the new literary canon in a censored form.

KEY WORDS: Awashima Kangetsu, history of literature, Ihara Saikaku, Kōda Rohan, Kyokutei Bakin, literary canon, national literature, Kenyūsha, Ozaki Kōyō, Uchida Rōan, Tsubouchi Shōyo.

Asian writer to receive the Noble prize for literature, while the latter is remembered not only as one of the most translated Japanese authors, but also for his extraordinary way of life, which ended up abruptly by his own hands though ritual suicide act, and due to that he’s called by many as the last samurai. The first and the last, the elder and the younger, the master and the apprentice, one being modest in his daily life and habits, while the other being used to luxury and comfort, the tiny and light-feathered and the apollonian-like, these two men were for the first sight as much contrary as one can imagine. Nevertheless, Kawabata and Mishima had close relationship, which started on the 8. March 1945, since Kawabata sent his first letter to a person who sought his attention, and ended only with Mishima’s suicide. This relationship may be categorized as the type of connection between the master and his apprentice or follower, but in their case from a certain point it can also be called a kind of close friendship. The author of this paper attends to trace their relationship throughout those 25 years, basing upon their correspondence as a primary source.

KEY WORDS: Kawabata Yasunari, Mishima Yukio, writers’ correspondence, Japanese literature.

Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Japanese Epistolary Tradition

Elena Yu. Bessonova

Institute of Asian and African Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University; School of World Politics, Lomonosov Moscow State University.

E-mail: elaoniti@gmail.com

In this article author examines the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Japanese epistolary texts. Throughout the history of the epistolary tradition the letter sample’s collections contained information about current events in the public life of Japanese people. Compilers of the contemporary digital Japanese letter sample’s collections responded to the global challenges of 2020 by providing users with information how to write a letter without making mistakes. The relevance of such information was appreciated by users, since an incorrectly written message could lead to a rupture of interpersonal relations, which is especially undesirable during the pandemic, when measures to limit direct communication were taken all around the world. New clichés were introduced in Japanese letter sample’s collections during the first months of the pandemic, serving the situation of epidemiological tension. The materials for research were samples of epistolary texts and epistolary clichés in Japanese, presented at the Internet. Also, we analyzed the situation with writing and sending New Year messages (nengajo:) 2021. We studied the data of surveys concerned sending New Year’s card. The surveys were conducted by various Japanese organizations, but the results are much more similar. Summarizing the results of the research, we noted the features characterizing the changes in the keywords and the epistolary clichés under the influence of the current world situation.

KEY WORDS: pandemic, Covid-19, media content, Japanese language, epistolary tradition, New Year messages, the Japanese epistolary style.

Translation of and Commentary

on the Kabuki Drama

Varvara V. Khomchenkova

Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies, National Research University Higher School of Economics.

E-mail: varvara.doemu@gmail.com

The title of article had turned out after reflection on such method of philological research as commentary. Scientists always work on commentary of translated texts from Japanese. Thus, we decided to analyze current method based on our own translations of Kabuki dramatical texts. We set a large-scale framework for what is commented on, and the addressee of the commentary is logically formed from this framework for us. In case of dramatic texts of the Kabuki theater such an addressee is a person who is interested not only in Japan or Japanese theater, but any person, no matter how much interested in the proposed topic. This is our idealized addressee, but it is not always possible to count on the translated text to be read by those who know the Japanese medieval theatrical context as well. From our analysis of translations of Japanese dramatic texts from Kabuki theater, three distinct types of commentary have emerged: “vocabulary” or explanatory notes; historical and cultural commentary; commentary on intertextuality. In current article we will provide examples of each type of commentary, based on translations of the following plays: Narukami ( , The Thunder God),

Shibaraku ( , Wait a minute!) and Kanjinchō ( , The Subscription List).

KEY WORDS: Japanese theatre, Kabuki theatre, translation, commentary.

At the Crossroads of Cultures:

The Story of Two Performances

Natalia F. Klobukova (Golubinskaya)

Scientific and Creative Center “World Musical Cultures” Under Moscow State

Tchaikovsky Conservatory.

E-mail: harunoumi@mail.ru

Article provides descriptions of two performances, the first took place at the Chinese Theater in Tsarskoye Selo near St.-Petersburg in the summer of 1803, and the second (more precisely, a series of touring performances) — 100 years later, in 1902 in Moscow and St.-Petersburg. The first performance was shown for Emperor Alexander I and his guests, including Japanese sailors who were going home together with Kruzenshtern’s round-the-world expedition. A description of the performance from the words of Japanese sailors (“drifters”) was included in the treatise Kankai Ibun (Exotic tales from overseas travelling), written in 1807. The performances in 1902 were shown by a Japanese touring troupe of kabuki actors under the direction of Otojiro Kawakami; considerable attention was drawn to the star of the troupe, the actress Sada-Yakko. The performance that took place in Russia caused an ambiguous reaction from spectators and theater critics, as evidenced by the records of the periodical press of that time. This article analyzes the peculiarities of the perception of a foreign language theater culture, manifested in the description by the audience, and concludes that, regardless of the reaction

to the incomprehensible and unusual things, acquaintance with a different culture significantly expands the outlook of the beholder and allows us to see something new in our own national culture.

KEY WORDS: Kankai Ibun, Chinese Theater, Emperor Alexander I, drifters, Charles Didelot, Russian musical instruments, Sada-Yakko, Vsevolod Meyerhold.

Glamorous in Form, Socialist in Content:

“Independent” Cinema in 1950s Japan

and its Affinities with “Mainstream”

Anastasia A. Fedorova

Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies, National Research University Higher School of Economics.

E-mail: nastassja.fedorova@gmail.com

In Japan, films created outside the commercial, studio system are reffered to as jishu eiga (“selfmade” or “autonomously produced” films) or indīzu (a term borrowed from English, meaning independent film or indie for short). The term dokuritsu puro eiga, which was commonly used in Japan during the first half of the twentieth century — and which literally means independent film production — is generally avoided by scholars. Today, this term is largely associated with the independent film movement of the 1950s, initiated by the leftist filmmakers who were forced to leave the major film studios due to political oppression and mistreatment that intensified during the Cold War. Leftist filmmakers used the term dokuritsu to stress their financial independence from the big capital, as well as to emphasize their opposition to the cultural and political mainstream in postwar Japan. The need to be seen as “independent cinema” standing apart from the major trends in postwar Japanese filmmaking, has largely determined the ways in which sholarship on dukuritsu puro movement has evolved. Films created by leftist filmmakers are perceived as being profoundly different, isolated from the stylistic norms and genre conventions of commercial, entertainment cinema, which doesn’t adequately reflect the true complexity of their production and distribution. By examining the advertising strategies adopted in order to construct the star image of actress Kishi Hatae (1927–2008), seen as one of the most iconic faces of “independent” film movement in postwar Japan, this paper attempts to reveal the many parallels between the dokuritsu puro filmmaking and the commercial, entertainment cinema, it aspired to openly oppose. Kishi Hatae was promoted as an ideal representative of Japanese proletariat on screen, yet newspapers and magazines stressed her visual resemblance to Hara Setsuko — a major star in Japanese cinema closely associated with official politics and cultural mainstream. A study of the actresses’ screen images and their promotion tactics allows us to reassert dokuritsu puro movement as a commercial project with its own advertising policy and representation strategies, that were consistent with the dominant tendencies in postwar Japanese mainstream entertainment cinema.

KEY WORDS: independent cinema, dokuritsu puro, Marxist thought in postwar Japan, Kishi Hatae, Hara Setsuko, star studies, Toho studio.

The Great Four of Angura: Revolution

in the Theater

Polina V. Samsonova

Independent researcher.

E-mail: polina_spb@mail.ru

The Little Theater movement (Angura) appeared in Japan in the late 1960s due to the student protests. There were four charismatic leaders of the underground theatre: JūrōKara (The Situation Theater), Tadashi Suzuki (The Waseda Little Theater), Makoto Satō(The Black Tent Theater) and Shūji Terayama (The Peanut Gallery). They opposed the European theater paradigm (shingeki) that was developed by the time. The Angura leaders suggested focusing on non-ver- bal expressiveness, especially music and actor’s plasticity. They also offered to reconsider the relationship to the classical Japanese theater and proposed to find new stage forms for the contradictory content, according to the complicated social life of postwar Japan.

KEY WORDS: Angura, shingeki, Jūrō Kara, Tadashi Suzuki, Makoto Satō, Shūji Terayama, theatrical underground, revolution in theater.

Space and the Deities of Space

in the Japanese Mythology

Liudmila M. Ermakova

Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, Japan; Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto,

Japan.

E-mail: lermakova@gmail.com

The article is devoted to the concept of space and two different structures of space in the myths of Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. The main object of analysis are two deities of space, Ame-no Minaka-nushi and Kuni-no Tokotachi, — inevitably invisible, possibly associated with Chinese mythology, and the first to appear in both the mythological chronicles. The study concerns their evolution in history, acquisition (within the framework of Buddhist world-vision) of a phantastic appearance, a key role in cosmogenesis by some of the gods, etc. We are also investigating the connection of the first verbal descriptions of the appearance of the Japanese lands as a living creature or symbolic thing seen from above, with the rite of “viewing the realm” (kunimi), as well as with the well-known device in Sino-Japanese painting, that is, when the object is depicted seen from a height (in cases of depicting the interior the building on the painting loses its roof and etc).

KEY WORDS: space, kami deities, rite of kunimi, mapping Japan as vajra.

Japanese Illustrated Scroll Yamai no sōshi

(The Scroll of Diseases and Deformities, 12th c.): Study and Translation

Diana G. Kiknadze

Eastern Faculty, Saint Petersburg State University.

E-mail: d.kiknadze@mail.ru

The article is a study and translation of the text of the Japanese illustrated scroll Yamai no sōshi (The Scroll of Diseases and Deformities, 12th century). The scroll was created by order of Emperor Go-Shirakawa by the master of Yamato-e painting in the genre of the Buddhist Rokudō-e scroll painting. The paintings of the scroll depict commoners and aristocrats with various diseases and physical disabilities. The original goal of Yamai no sōshi was to supplement the emakimono with pictures of hell and the World of Hungry Creatures available by that time with the image of the World of Human. Sick and physically handicapped commoners personified not good karma. The scroll was very popular among the Japanese up to Meiji era, was often copied, and also served as the basis for creating new images. The main problem of this scroll is the specificity of the genre, the ratio of text and image, the true conception of the scroll. Particularly acute is the question of the laughter aspect and the entertainment purpose of this scroll. The article provides a Japanese text in Bungo and its translation into Russian of all textual explanations for the scroll illustrations from the collection of the Kyoto National Museum and other museum`s and private collections.

KEY WORDS: scroll painting, emakimono, Rokudō-e, diseases and physical disabilities, Heian era, Go-Shirakawa, narrative scrolls, setsuwa genre.

Buddhist and Secular Elements

in Zoku Honchō Ōjōden by Ōe-no Masafusa

Anastasia A. Petrova

Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences.

E-mail: al.maat48@gmail.com

The article discusses the text Zoku Honchō ōjōden (Continuation of the biographies of Japanese reborn into the Pure Land), composed in 1101–1111 by Ōe-no Masafusa. The article focuses on the structure of the text, its religious and secular elements. The text contains 42 biographies, arranged in the following order: biographies of emperors, high nobility, monks, laymen and women (nuns and laywomen). All stories have nearly the same structure: each biography mentions first the origin of the person, then lists his talents and achievement, describes his commitment to the Buddhist Path and future rebirth into the Pure Land, as well as the actions taken to achieve it. An important part of each biography is the description of the final hours of the person (given as an example of a death with right mindfulness), as well as of the signs that prove his of her rebirth.

KEY WORDS: Buddhism in Japan, Pure Land Buddhism, ōjōden, Ōe-no Masafusa.

worldview’s features based on material from Kojidan fifth maki, selected tales about main shrine-temple complexes: Ise Jingū, Iwashimizu Hachimangū, Kamo-jinja. These tales can be considered as example of text which is able to demonstrate how religious and philosophical conceptions may be stated in didactic tales literature. Akikane does not formulate theoretical theses separately, he places them in the narration, between the lines, and makes to speak out, instead the author, such things as order of tales, selection of topics, references between tales, exposition of real history facts or intentional distortion of them. In tales about shrines and temples Akikane focuses less on the history of sacred places itself, more on particular bright cases, especially legends about miracles. Principle of subject matters’ selection is often not obvious out of the hand. At first sight composition of the maki may appear chaotic, when actually the chapter has its clear and deep-laid structure. One of the main conceptions in fifth maki is the idea of buddha-kami joint veneration. In this way worship of Hachiman and Kamo Daimyōjin is considered. Kojidan is a bright instance of honji suijaku depiction in setsuwa literature (in the context of this theory kami are local manifestations of Buddhist deities).

KEY WORDS: Kojidan, Tales about Old Matters, Akikane, setsuwa, honji suijaku, kami, temples, shrines, Iwashimizu, Hachiman, Kamo, Ise.

Personification of the Disease:

The Written Oaths of the Epidemic Deities

Anna M. Dulina

Graduate School of Letters of Kyoto University.

E-mail: nigi@mail.ru

This paper examines the written oaths of epidemic deities in the form of formal “letters of apology” (wabi shōmon). These oaths were hung above the main door of the house or by the bedside of a sick person as an amulet. The apology was addressed to a real or fictional character who banished the demonic deity of disease or cajoled the wandering god of plague with a warm welcome. This type of amulets, which appeared as a result of the personification of diseases, was considered an effective way of protecting against epidemics, since it combined the power of a talisman, the magical force of a spell and the verbal power of a solemn promise. This paper provides the analysis of several types of “letters of apology”, the study of the cult of the deity of smallpox, as well as the examination of documents that shed light on the history of the origins and use of epidemic deities’ written oaths.

KEY WORDS: wabi shōmon, epidemic deities, smallpox, amulets, written oaths, hōsō-e, aka-e, popular beliefs, Minamoto Tametomo.

The Royal Path in Konjaku monogatari-shū

Nadezhda N. Trubnikova

Voprosy Filosofii Journal, Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences; School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.

E-mail: trubnikovann@mail.ru

The relationship of the Buddhist community with the secular authorities is discussed in one way or another in many texts: from sutras, where Buddha’s teachings are transmitted to his Indian disciples, to legends from the life of different Buddhist countries. The largest collection of setsuwa didactic tales, Konjaku monogatari-shū (1120s) also repeatedly refers to this topic, denoted by Japanese scholars as ōbō buppō, “sovereign law and Buddha Law” in their complex interaction. The stories about Indian kings, Chinese emperors and Japanese sovereigns in Konjaku can be traced to a kind of interpretation of the “royal path”. Firstly, only one who has accumulated great merits in a previous life can become a ruler. Secondly, the relationship between the ruler and his subjects is also rooted in previous lives, and in this sense, there can be no undeserved royal favor or unjust punishment: the power of the sovereign serves as means of rewarding people for past merits and sins. Thirdly, possessing supreme power, the ruler must, much deeper than other people, calculate the reasons for human actions and their consequences, otherwise it will be difficult for him to maintain power; from such reflections is just a step to understanding the causes and consequences in the Buddhist sense of the word.

KEY WORDS: Buddhism, setsuwa didactic tales, Konjaku monogatari-shū, ruler and subjects, power, causes and consequences.

Japanese Emperor Tennō in Studies

of Tsuda Sokichi (1873–1961)

Kseniya V. Shupletsova

Institute of Asian and African Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University. E-mail: noisettepost@gmail.com

Tsuda Sokichi is a foremost figure in the Japanese historical science. In his article Thinking on Japanese Emperor he made a try to understand the grassroots of the word tennō and consider its place in political life of Japan. Tsuda’s research was based on comprehensive study of Japanese and Chinese historical sources.

KEY WORDS: Japanese Emperor, tennō, Tsuda Sokichi, Japanese historical science.